Summary or Essence of Bhagavad Gita

Summary in one paragraph:

Do your duty (work) without getting attached to the outcome. Outcome (Success or failure) does not matter as long as we have put in our best efforts. We need to do our duty with complete devotion to God and accept any result of the work done (success or failure) as God's will after putting our full efforts.
One common misinterpretation after reading the above can be that since a person should not get attached to the outcome or the results (success or failure), we need not set goals. This interpretation is incorrect and the right way to see it is that Goals have to be set and they need to help in our evolution . We have to do our duties to help reach the goal. Both our efforts and God's grace is necessary in any work we do. Once we have put our best efforts, we should accept any outcome whether it is success or failure.

The above principle is discussed in Bhagavad Gita as Bhagavan Sri Krishna takes us through the eternal knowledge of the soul or the life that extends beyond Janma (this particular birth and death cycle), the ultimate purpose of any Jeevatma (soul) and the attributes of the Paramatma (Supreme soul). Bhagavan Sri Krishna also talks about how the soul gets entangled in infinite birth and death cycles due to its association with Prakriti (material nature). He says that liberation from this cycle of infinite birth and death is the right goal of life. This can be done by several methods including Saankya Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga or Sannyasa Yoga. These Yogas or paths are not independent and the tenets can be combined to achieve liberation.

Bhagavad Gita has 18 chapters and 700 shlokas/verses. There are many popular books and audios that gives both translation and interpretation (purport).

• Bhagavad Gita as it is translated by Srila Prabhupada - Dvaita school of philosophy
• Bhagavad Gita translated by Gita Press Gorakhpur
• Bhagavad Gita translated by S. Radhakrishnan
• Bhagavad Gita translated by Swami Swaroopananda, Swami Tapasyananda, Swami Ranganathananda – Advaita school of philosophy

In addition, there are discourses from Chinmaya mission and several other organizations. Sages from time immemorial have given their translations and interpretations in various languages. For Tamil discourses, search for names like Krishna Premi Anna, Nochur Venkatraman. For discourses in English, search for discourse by Prof. Mahadevan or Velukudi Krishnan. This link has quite a few discourses. Commentaries from enlightened persons (Bhasyam like Adi Shankara Bhasyam) are also available.

In this blog, I am trying to invoke reader's interest in spirituality by summarizing all the chapters of Bhagavad Gita in English.

Every human being has the choice of free will and may agree or disagree with what Bhagavad Gita says. With age and maturity , the person will be able to experience the truths told in Bhagavad Gita and eventually understand, agree and practically experience the statements of the Paramatma/Supreme Creator. Here aging refers to spiritual aging that may be trillions of rebirth!! That's why Lord Krishna concludes his discourse to Arjuna saying "I have told what needs to be told and it is now your wish to take it or leave it". So, it respects the human free will and does not force anything on the Jeevatma or the reader. Bhagavan also says that even if a human takes the wrong path or a sub optimal path, he will learn and ultimately attain liberation. Hence, my request to the reader is to read and understand with an open mind. If you are new to spirituality, several contents will look either surprising or illogical but as life progresses, it will make sense.

18 chapters can be broadly categorized into 3 categories:

• Karma Yoga and Dhyana Yoga - Chapter 1 to 6 talks about how a human being should act on his duties in the materialistic world. Putting it in more simple terms – How to act in day to day life that helps the mind to become mature. How can a human free his mind from unnecessary distractions and meditate (Dhyana) his mind on spirituality.
• Bhakti Yoga – Once a human being has got maturity that spirituality is necessary, his mind will have more time due to the practice of Karma Yoga and Dhyana Yoga. But nature of mind is such that it needs to focus on 'something', otherwise it's easy to get distracted in non-spiritual pursuits. In Chapter 7 to 12, Bhagavad Gita focusses the importance of doing everything with Bhakti and surrendering the outcomes (success/failure) to God rather than getting attached to the outcomes.
• Chapter 13 to 18 discusses the same process explained above in more detail. Here, it explains how the human being is constituted by the 3 modes of nature (Sattva - Goodness, Rajas - Passion, & Tamas - Ignorance) in different proportions. This is what gives unique identity to the individual. The activities that a human performs like Yagna, Tapas and Daana also can be categorized into the 3 modes of nature (i.e. same Sattva, Rajas and Tamas). Human being has to evolve gradually by limiting his activities of Tamas and Rajas. He has to predominantly do activities in the Sattvic mode (Goodness mode). Ultimately, he will transcend the 3 modes of nature and realize the ultimate goal of liberation. Bhagavan re-assures in chapter 18 that anyone in any Varna (i.e. Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra) can aim for the ultimate goal and can attain it.

Background:

Before jumping into Chapter 1, if the reader does not know the historical context, here's the quick background.

Pandavas are the five sons of Queen Kunti and King Pandu – namely Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva .

Kauravas are Pandavas' cousins . King Pandu's elder brother is Dhritarashtra. He is blind by birth and hence asks his younger brother Pandu to rule. But after Pandu's death, he is ruling the kingdom along with his 100 sons. Duryodhana is the eldest. Duryodhana and 99 siblings are Kauravas.
Pandavas lose a gambling match to Kauravas and they are banished from the kingdom for 14 years. They fulfill their duties in exile and return back after 14 years and ask for a share in the kingdom. Kauravas due to greed are not ready to share the kingdom with Pandavas which is their rightful duty. They snub the Pandavas that they will not even give 5 villages and hence to forget their share of the kingdom.

This necessitates the war where Pandavas and Kauravas are assembled with their armies to fight the battle of Kurukshetra .

Krishna at this point is a well-wisher and a consultant to both Pandavas and Kauravas. He offers himself as consultant to one party and his armies/weapons etc to the other party in the war. Pandavas choose him and Kauravas choose his armies/weapons. Krishna further does not play any role as a warrior, but helps in the role of a Charioteer to Arjuna (3rd Pandava sibling).

With this background, lets jump into Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1.